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Friday, May 10, 2013

No doubt about it: Audi's new commercial starring Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto is 31 flavors of awesome.

Dubbed "The Challenge", the clip manages to work in numerous Trekkie gags while hyping the Audi S7. We even get a glimpse of Shelley, the autonomous Audi TT designed by Stanford University's Center for Automotive Research.

By all accounts, the ad is a hit, having received over 1.7 million YouTube views in just 48 hours. But could a few well-placed cameos have made it even awesomer? Consider the possibilities:

1. William Shatner: This man (we like to call him "Schatzi") epitomizes contemporary cool. True, it took some of us a while to appreciate his Priceline-fueled return to prominence in the early aughts. But since then, the interwebs has allowed us to relive Shatner's most outstanding moments, including his completely out-there performance of "Rocket Man". He could've at least been given the role of a valet at the club. Chris Pine would never need to know.

2. George Takei: Jennifer Lawrence won a slice of the web this week, but Takei owns the whole internet pie. In our dream version of this Audi commercial, Shelley speeds off and Takei pops up between Nimoy and Quinto, moaning his trademark, "Oh myyyyy."

3. Nichelle Nichols: The woman who spawned thousands of teenage fantasies as Lieutenant Uhura might not have the household name recognition as others on this list, but one look at Nichols, and you know exactly who she is. How great would it have been to see her slide out of Shelley and waltz right past Nimoy and Quinto, yammering into a Bluetooth headset?

4. Patrick Stewart: Purists might scoff at mixing Star Trek

's original and Next Generation cast members, but thanks to some very high-profile appearances in recent years -- especially his voiceover work on animated series like American Dad -- Stewart is a perennial crowd-pleaser.

5. Robert Downey Jr.: The world is abuzz over next week's release of Star Trek Into Darkness

, but has Audi already forgotten its huge product placement win with Iron Man 3, which had the second-biggest opening in U.S. movie history? Surely there would've been a clever way to wrap Tony Stark into the fun.

Amateur casting agents: share your own thoughts about Audi's "The Challenge" ad in the comments below.